Living history museums
A boy chases a bird on an empty Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2020. The tree-covered brick alley typically teeming with tourists is empty. Many of the shops that sell everything from traditional Mexican folk dresses to paintings of artist Frida Kahlo to sombreros are padlocked and the ones open have few, if any, customers. The strains of mariachi trios have fallen silent and the fragrance of taquitos frying has become less pungent. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Historic heart of Los Angeles on life support from COVID-19

By Brian Melley Dec. 24, 2020 12:01 AM EST

A visitor casts a shadow while looking at Plymouth Rock, the traditional point of arrival of the Pilgrims on the Mayflower in 1620, in Plymouth, Mass., Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020. Disease introduced by traders and settlers, either by happenstance or intention, played an important role in the conquest of Native peoples. And that inconvenient fact, well known to the Natives' descendants, is contrary to the traditional narrative of the "New World." (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Some see irony in virus' impact on Mayflower commemoration

By Allen G. Breed Sep. 22, 2020 09:29 AM EDT

The Mayflower II, a replica of the original Mayflower ship that brought the Pilgrims to America 400 year ago, is docked in Plymouth, Mass., days after returning home following extensive renovations, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2020. A disease outbreak that wiped out large numbers of the Native inhabitants of what is now New England gave the Pilgrims a beachhead in the "New World." So, some historians find it ironic that a pandemic has put many of the 400th anniversary commemorations of the Mayflower's landing on hold. (AP Photo/David Goldman)
Some see irony in virus' impact on Mayflower commemoration

By Allen G. Breed Sep. 22, 2020 01:07 AM EDT

The Mayflower II sails through the waters of Fishers Island Sound off Groton, Conn., Tuesday, July 28, 2020, on the seventh day of two weeks of sea trials. The vessel, a replica of the original Mayflower that carried the Pilgrims to America in 1620, left Mystic Seaport Museum last week after a three-year, $11.2 million restoration by the workers at the Henry B. duPont Preservation Shipyard. The 400th anniversary festivities scheduled for Boston and Cape Cod this spring and summer were all postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Sean D. Elliot/The Day via AP)
Mayflower II cancels scheduled stop in Rhode Island

Aug. 06, 2020 09:11 AM EDT

FILE - In this June 6, 2016 file photo, people on a wharf watch as the Mayflower II arrives in Plymouth Harbor in Plymouth, Mass. After undergoing more than three years of major renovations at Connecticut's Mystic Seaport and months of delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the replica of the Mayflower is is set to leave Mystic Seaport on Monday, July 20, 202 for a sea trials in New London, before sailing up the coast and arriving at Plimoth Plantation in Massachusetts on during the second week of August. (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
Its $11M makeover complete, the Mayflower II is sailing home

By Pat Eaton-Robb Jul. 18, 2020 10:06 AM EDT

Baker defends virus testing; COVID-19 cases near 104,000

By Steve Leblanc And Mark Pratt Jun. 09, 2020 10:25 AM EDT
BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts remains aggressive in its efforts to test for the coronavirus even as the number being conducted falls short of the state’s...